Last Expected
by manateesandmishacollins
Summary: He knew what the numbers on his wrist meant, but when English teacher Castiel Novak starts teaching at the new school, the last thing he expects to get from one of his classes is a soul mate and his clock to run out. But, then there was senior Dean Winchester, who was bullied for caring too much about his little brother. Also, intervening Gabriel and Sam and Jess being adorable.
1. Chapter 1

_Originally posted on my blog, written for my friend Dean. 3 Any mistakes in grammar/spelling are mine. I do not own Supernatural or any of the characters, nor do I get anything from this. Other than joy. Sometimes._

"You look nervous," the voice was taunting and the elder Winchester ducked his head down, pushing his way past the others, when one grabbed onto his wrist.

"Oh, look!" The bully exclaimed teasingly, "Dumbass Winchester's finding his soul mate today!" His voice was taunting, and Dean turned his head away from the teasing, trying desperately to ignore the words that were being spoken to him. He clenched his fist once he got his hand back, pulling his sleeve back down.

"Shut up, asshole." Dean responded, and the bully looked up in surprise.

"What did you just say to me?" The bully took a step forward and the Winchester panicked, backing up, his words failing him again as he struggled so hard to just get away from the person who was menacingly coming toward him. But this was nothing new. Not at school, at least. He protected Sam from the bullies by being fresh meat for the bullies. Maybe it wasn't a system that worked the best, but Sam was popular. Sam played sports. Sam was able to succeed.

And Dean was beat to a pulp again and again by the bullies who didn't seem to know when to stop. He bit back a moan of pain as the bullies came after him, and was left on the floor moments later, shaking in the corner, his eyes forming tears. And then he heard the voice, and Dean looked up. The voice immediately made him stare in shock, it was like nothing that he had ever heard before. Obviously, it belonged to a teacher, but in this case? It also belonged to his savior.

"Something happen to you?" The dark-haired teacher reached down, and the boy ducked his head down, shaking his head and standing up, shoving his hands into his pockets, not yet noticing the change on his wrist.

It was the first day of school, and Castiel was a new English teacher at Dean's school. He turned his head toward the boy's denial, tilting it to the side and then saying, "You would tell me if there was? I do not need to be feared," The boy nodded his head passively, and Castiel reached down a hand to help him up.

Dean saw the numbers on his wrist, a line of zeroes, and he sighed. Another happy person. He expected that his numbers ran out a long time ago and he had a beautiful life and a family who wasn't a disappointment like Dean was for everyone else. Nonetheless, the younger boy immediately took hold of his hand to stand up, staring at him nervously.

"Thank you," He only managed those two words before the first bell rang, and Dean felt a panicked look take hold of his face. He couldn't get noticed by the teachers if he had already been noticed by the bullies. To be late to class would just make this already terrible day even worse than it had become in the beginning. He snatched his hand away and then went running down the nearly empty hallways, seeming panicked, and in a rush.

Castiel watched the boy for a moment before picking up his bag again, taking them into his hands and then walking into his classroom, sitting down at his desk. It was then that he noticed his numbers had stopped ticking down, and he stared at them. He had been wearing a long shirt, so it could have been anyone, all morning.

The woman who had given him his coffee at the shop and written her phone number on his cup instead of his name. His neighbor's daughter who was in town for the weekend and waved to Castiel when he was leaving his house. The man who had given him directions to the school inside of the gas station when he was late, lost, and confused. Castiel had met so many people just since he had woken up – and he had missed the one. He had missed his soul mate, somewhere in the rush. He or she was out there, somewhere, probably searching just like Castiel was. He had met his soul mate, and he had let his opportunity pass through his fingers.

Dean ran into his algebra class and sat down, speaking nervously as he made his way to the back of the classroom, ducking his head down once he had made it to the seat that he always chose, where no one really could look at him, even the teacher. He pulled out his notebook, and while he pulled it out, his sleeve rode up slightly, exposing the mark of the time that was left until he met his soul mate. Of course, like everything else in Dean's life, there was a problem with this.

His eyes pricked with tears when he saw that they were at zero. All of them. He had met his soul mate, and he had completely missed it. He nervously looked through the room. Was it a bully? Oh, no. It had to be one of the bullies. They were the only ones that Dean had spoken to today, and there were a few new ones in the crowd, as there always were at the beginning of the school year. The people who he despised the most – the ones that made his life a living Hell, and one was the person that Dean was destined to live with forever.

He stared down at his notebook absently, tracing patterns into it. He probably wouldn't like his soul mate anyway, he reckoned to himself. It was probably a jerk, and maybe even not his type. Maybe it was the new girl in the bully group this morning, the one whose hair was obviously not naturally black and looked like she was trying too hard. Or maybe it was the scrawny kid in the back who seemed a little bit out of place.

Dean swallowed all of his assumptions, looking up as his new teacher did attendance. As his name was spoken, there were a few snickers around the classroom, since his little brother, who was four years younger than he was, was in the same class. And everyone knew that Sam did better than Dean. Dean ducked his head down, staring at his notebook. All of this was for Sam. All of this was for Sam.

Sam had met his soul mate last year, when he was in eighth grade (he had skipped one, from the principal's urging). Her name was Jessica, and she was a blonde, a year younger than Sam. The two of them hit it off immediately, before Jess had even realized that her clock had timed out. There had been something wrong with Sam's since he had been born, and it had restarted twice already, so he hadn't thought anything when it timed out.

But it was obvious that Jessica was the real thing – she was everything that Sam had ever needed in his life. He was happier with Jess around, he cared about here. Everything that he wanted was with Jess.

And Dean was alone.

Like usual.

Well, not completely alone. His little brother was sitting next to him in class, staring over absently at his brother's notebook while taking his own perfect notes. Dean stood up when the bell rang, and Sam lightly grabbed his arm, looking at his older brother with a careful look on his face, before he caught a sight of his brother's wrist, and a small smile showed over the younger's face, staring at his older brother happily. "How is she?" Sam asked softly, letting go of his brother.

"I don't know." Dean stood up and walked out of the room, toward his English class. His brother stared after him. He… didn't know? Dean had been sort of excited about that since they had woken up that morning, since his brother might finally have someone in his life that mattered to him, something in his life that actually made sense. And it was something that Dean hadn't had in a long time, not since their mother had died. Something normal.

John had tried to be a normal father for him and Sam, but what could he really do? His wife had died, and he had two small children. He had taken care of them the best that he had, and Dean didn't ask for a better father. But… he was distant. It was nothing new for John to be distant from them, but it was at this point that Dean wished something in his family was right.

One of the bullies shoved him on their way to their next class, and he clenched his teeth together, dragging himself toward the English classroom and walking to the back of the room without a glance toward the teacher. English was his best class. The stories made sense, the poetry had meaning that Dean had never wanted to imagine, but totally understood… English time was a good class for Dean to be around in.

He had had the same teacher for the past two years, a teacher who he hadn't told a thing about himself. But last year, that teacher had announced that he was moving, and Dean was dreading English class. He had finally been making progress, answering questions, doing everything that a normal student was supposed to do. But without the teacher that he had grown so fond of? What was he supposed to do? Pretend like he didn't care, blend into the back of the classroom like he had done in past situations, and in all of his other classes?

He sat down in his seat, touching his fingers against the numbers on his wrist. One of his few friends, a kid named Benny, walked into the room and sat down next to Dean. Dean didn't meet his eyes at first, and Benny raised his eyebrows. After a few moments of pestering, Dean finally slid his sleeve up to expose his numbers. Benny raised his eyebrows. "I was shoved against the lockers. I don't have a clue who it is," He said quietly, pulling his sleeve back down so that no one could see it.

He hated his life right now. However, things got a little bit better when his teacher finally introduced himself.

"Hello, class. My name is Castiel Novak, but you will call me Mr. Novak with no questions asked. I will be your English teacher this year, and since you have been coming to this school for a few years now, I expect no funny business from you. No cheating will be tolerated." He glared at the front row, his eyes migrating to the back, where he saw the boy from earlier, the one who he had saved from the bullies, "No bullying will be tolerated in my classroom or anywhere else in the school or else you will be reported. Do you all understand?" His words were met with a mechanical call of yes, and he nodded his head.

Castiel went right into his class work that day, trying to call on each of his students to see what they knew, and to get to know their names. That was the most important part, he had to know them as best that he could so that he could make sure who he was looking out for.

Finally, they got to the boy from earlier. It had been a simple question – the student's name, and the one thing they'd bring to a deserted island. "My name's Dean Winchester," His voice was quiet, but not shy. "And I'd take my little brother with me, no questions asked. Sam would know the way off that thing." He said, looking up challengingly. Everyone else had been talking about their technology, or things they thought would impress Cas (especially a girl who had giggled, unable to even say her answer, apparently, they found the new teacher 'attractive'). Castiel smiled with Dean's answer, nodding his head.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Winchester. I have the feeling your brother must be much better suited for island life than mine. Any of mine would probably end up crying and begging me to help him out of the way," He responded, a slight smile quirking at the corners of his lips. The girls whispered among themselves with a giggle before one raised her hand.

"You have brothers? How many of them? What are their names?" Another, thinking she was clever, and quiet, whispered to her friend, questioning if they were as attractive as Castiel was. Cas heard, and his cheeks flushed red.

"Er, I have a rather large family. Gabriel was the brother I was thinking of the most," He smiled slightly, shaking his head as he had heard the words. He ignored the whispered question from the other girl, knowing better than to give into their giggles and whispers. Eventually, it would all die down, and he would be able to continue on with class as normal.

Dean smirked slightly toward him for a moment before someone else caught the younger boy's eyes, and he looked away from the teacher, seeming ashamed of everything that he had just said. Castiel stared at Dean for a moment longer before nodding his head slowly, continuing through the rest of the class for his attendance.

Dean stood up at the end of class with the rest of the students, gathering his books slowly. Castiel had assigned them homework for the night, which sort of bothered the rest of the class, but Dean was excited. Because English was the one class that he was good at. And it would give him an excuse to stay in the library for longer than he had to, really, since he could claim to be doing homework. He walked from the door, reaching out to take the homework from Cas when their hands brushed together,

Dean looked down quietly as Mr. Novak held on for a moment longer than really necessary, and he apologized quietly, tugging his hand away, but Cas only tightened his hold. "Do they do it often?" His voice was quiet, watching Dean.

"Do what?" Dean grumbled, knowing what he was talking about, but tugging his arm away.

When he left the classroom, the reality of things came tumbling down on him. He hadn't just met bullies and new classmates this morning. He'd met Castiel, Mr. Novak. His wrist had shown a line of zeroes as well. He had seemed rushed, nervous, even if just for a first day.

Dean stared at the door for a moment longer before running to the bathroom, feeling sick. His soul mate was his English teacher.

Why couldn't anything about his life be easy?


	2. Chapter 2

_Thanks for the reviews and whatever else. And, yeah. Supernatural. Home of the strange AUs. But I love it. 3 Again, any grammatical errors are mine, and I am not the owner of Supernatural. I wish, don't I?_

Obviously, considering the fact that he only taught one class, and it would be stupid to have the same class more than once in one day, Dean didn't see Castiel for the rest of that day. Of course, that was probably a good thing, since he needed to be away from him with his new realization of what had happened to him, of why his numbers had suddenly stopped their endless ticking toward the moment that would change his life forever.

He hid his fear from his little brother when he took Sam home from school later that day, and just stayed at home for the rest of the night. He had few friends, and they were all involved in things. Or had family matters that they dealt with. So Sam and Dean just stayed where they were, working on their homework. Well, Sam was doing his homework, and Dean was staring at his.

His thoughts, understandably, were elsewhere. He hadn't told Sam what he had learned about his soul mate, he was humiliated just thinking about it. No one else in all of school had as stupid a problem with this as he did! But it made sense, he didn't know who else it could be.

The older stared down at his English homework, looking at the pages in front of him. It was nothing that hard to do. He just had to read a poem, and understand what it meant. Which was easier than Dean had expected from anything that he had heard. Most of the other students seemed to be raving about how hard Mr. Novak's class was, and how ('despite Castiel being a total hottie') he was a hard teacher and many of the students were regretting their placement in his class.

It was only the second day. It was going to be a long year for everyone, but for Dean Winchester, that day was going to be long for a completely different reason. It wasn't because the class was hard (it wasn't impossible, but it sure wasn't easy), it was because he had met his soul mate on the first day of school, and that soul mate turned out to be his teacher in the one class that he had thought he might have a possibility of passing.

Now, Dean didn't even want to go to class, since he knew that it meant facing Mr. Novak (Castiel), and that was something that would mean a very awkward time between the two of them. Because, believe it or not, once one knew who his soul mate was, he tended to feel like he should know more about that person. That he should fall in love. That they should end up living happily ever after together. That wasn't going to go down well if a person's soul mate turned out to be his standoffish seeming English teacher.

But it wasn't like anyone got a choice over who their soul mate was. No, once the soul mate was chosen, there was no going back. Dean couldn't act like his time hadn't stopped, couldn't pick up anyone else and act like they were the one. Castiel may never know who his soul mate even was. Fate had done its job and brought them together once, there was no rule saying that now they had to know who they were and fall into a happily ever.

Because if this ended with a happily ever after, it would be a fairy tale, and Dean's life had always been pretty far from a fairy tale.

It started when he was young, and he was still living with both of his parents. Mary and John were happy together – they had a four year old boy and another on the way. Nothing could make this bad for them. That was, nothing that they could have ever foreseen. But who looks ahead and imagines what might happen after your baby who's barely even been conceived is born, and is six months old? Who looks ahead to see only tragedy?

Mary and John probably wished that they had looked ahead while they still had the chance. Because Dean's happy normal childhood had ended abruptly when his little brother turned six months old. Mary and John had just gone to bed when she heard a strange sound on the monitor in Sam's room. There had been a problem with one of the light fixtures on his mobile – there was nothing that anyone could have done. Dean rushed out of the house with Sam still held in his arms while John frantically called for the police, the fire department, for anyone!

While Dean and Sam were rushing from the house, a board that had held up the youngest Winchester's door crashed to the ground below where it had been and, flaming, blocked the path of anyone in or out of the room. It took five minutes for the fire department to arrive, but at that point? It was too late.

Mary had been trapped inside the room with the worst of the fire, and no one could have gotten her out if they tried – not before the fire department showed up. She had screamed and cried at John to get out of the house – to protect her babies. She would be fine. She would be just fine.

Just under a week later, Dean, Sam, and John Winchester were dressed in their best clothes for a funeral. While Dean and Sam didn't quite understand what was going on – they had an idea. At least Dean did. His mom was gone. They were leaving the house that he had lived in for all of his life. There was no going back.

He had refused to talk for a year. He only started when Sam started trying to answer.

After that, Dean had always been a little bit behind, wanting his brother to take all of the spotlights, wanting Sam to be the one that everyone knew and loved. Because Sam had never even had that little glimpse of a fairy tale that Dean had had.

Sam had the chance, once he and Jess were older.

Sam and Dean didn't know it yet, but Sam never would have the chance for his perfect fairy tale.

Dean dragged his feet against the ground as he walked in the direction of his classroom, staring at it as though it was offending him for even being there. He didn't want to go to class. Sure, it was no new feeling, but the intensity in which he was feeling it was what was completely new. He didn't want to go to class – he couldn't go to class. He couldn't face Castiel, knowing what he knew, but knowing that Castiel didn't have a clue of what was going on.

He couldn't do it.

But he had to.

The boy breathed in deeply before opening up the door and stepping into the room, keeping his head down. When he finally raised his head to see where there was an open seat (in the back, he couldn't sit in the front), he saw that the only seat was in the front row. Right in front of Mr. Novak's desk, where the teacher looked flustered and irritated, and where it was pretty obvious that he had no patience for people that were Dean's age. The Winchester stood where he was for a moment until he saw the people in the back whispering and laughing.

They knew what they had done. They knew how he was, they knew his habits. And they knew exactly how to torment him when Mr. Novak couldn't possibly have any idea that he was being tormented. The teenager stared at the seat before clenching his teeth, biting them harder together, and walking to the seat, sitting down there and pulling his books out of his bag, the boy behind him kicking his seat and saying hello, but in a manner that Dean knew was not friendly.

He stared down at his papers until the bell rang, and when he looked back up, he could feel Mr. Novak's gaze burning through his face, and he could see something flash across his face before he stood up, staring right at Dean for a second before looking back over the rest of his class.

"Discuss the reading from last night. When I return, I want each of you to know what this poem means backwards and forwards. If you don't, I will be sure to add more homework to ensure that you understand next time."

While his voice had been steely and collected yesterday, it was rushed through these words. Someone in the back called out if he was going to do attendance, but they just got a grunt asking one of them to do it before the teacher opened the door of the classroom and breezed through it, not looking at any of his students.

It was going to be a long year for all of them.


	3. Chapter 3

_Thanks again for the reviews and follows. 3 I'm glad that you've liked it. This is the last pre-written section that I have, so I'll try to keep updating around weekly, but we'll see how I actually do with that. But, yeah. I'm finally living up to my promise of Gabriel~! There's little Dean/Cas interaction. Actually, none. Other than panicked thoughts._

He had barely even finished his sentence when he started feeling like he was going to throw up, and he was out of the door in less than a second, not letting himself listen to any of the students calling after him (some in concern, some seemed mocking). Castiel rushed out of the classroom as though the whole building was going to fall apart at any moment, and he pushed his way into the teacher's lounge, staring around it for a moment, trying to catch his breath, trying to do anything to just make himself understand what he had just noticed. Because he had to be wrong. This couldn't be happening!

His soul mate was Dean Winchester. A student. Not only was that all sorts of illegal (he didn't know anything about the boy, but there was no way that he was of age, was he?), but it was also against the rules! And it seemed immoral, no matter the rules against it. He couldn't let it get in the way of his career, not when he had just started!

All of the thoughts were swimming through his head as panic started to envelop him, and then the door opened, and Castiel groaned, pressing his face close against his legs and sinking to the ground. Not many of the other teachers knew him all that well yet, since he was still new in the school, but one of his brothers (the one who had gotten him the job), Gabriel, also worked there and happened not to have a class when Cas came bursting in, looking like he'd been kicked in the gut.

"Kids that bad? C'mon, Cassie, it's only day two, you can hang in for another hundred some," Taking the lollypop out of his mouth, Gabriel grinned toward Castiel, who shot him a glare that apparently told the fact that he was not in the mood for his brother's tricks and jokes at the moment. At all. He wanted to go home, but he couldn't just leave the school because of a coincidence in a single student. It wasn't professional, and if Castiel was anything, it was professional. He had just started this job, he couldn't quit now!

Especially not when he thought about Dean Winchester's green eyes, and the honest look on his face and the fact that – He was brought out of his thoughts by Gabriel snapping his fingers in front of his face.

"You in there?" His friend looked concerned, and Castiel covered his face with his hands, grunting out an answer, but Gabriel apparently didn't think that that was what was he was looking for, because he kneeled down in front of Cas and started to prey his hands from his forehead before staring at his wrist.

"Gabe –" Cas started to end the conversation of what he knew Gabriel would bring up, the fact that he had met his soul mate, but it was worse than he expected as Gabriel stared incredulously at the marks on his brother's wrist. He felt a smirk on his face, and Castiel buried his face in his hands.

"Castiel! You met her? Or him? Ooh, is it a him or a her?" He grinned, bouncing on the heels of his feet, "Are they attractive? How did you meet them? What's their name? Are you going to see them again? C'mon, Cas, spill the details!" Gabriel exclaimed, grinning at his brother and Cas grabbed his wrist away from his brother, a dark look crossing his face.

"Gabriel, it's unimportant," He said as a snap of his voice, and that only made Gabriel more curious, because who would just hide it? That was stupid! You couldn't just hide it!

"Cassie, it's your _soul mate._ I know you're emotionally compromised or whatever is going on in your head, but you've gotta tell me. At least tell me _something_, even if you're not about to tell me everything. Something, Cas," Gabriel was overdramatically leaning over the man, and Cas shoved at him slightly, because his brother was, as usual, driving him insane. It was nothing that he wasn't used to, Gabriel was always intruding on his business.

Sometimes, it was sort of nice. To know that his brother would always be able to see if something was bothering him, and would be ready to snap up and take care of whatever it was at a moment's notice. Sometimes, though, like at this very moment, Castiel couldn't wish harder for a different brother. For one who didn't know him as well. Who one who couldn't see through the pissy looks and stunted speech. For one who knew that Castiel only hid behind those aspects when he was hiding from something – or hiding something from him. Both things that Gabriel needed answers for right away.

"It's a male, Gabriel. And if you start trying to gossip to figure out who it is, I'll make sure that you don't have a ride home for a month." He said lowly, rising to his feet, trying to keep a focused look on his brother's face, but knowing Gabriel would easily see through it. He wouldn't abandon Gabriel just because he was annoying him. And the stunted speech was just used for making a point. He could easily keep up a conversation with any normal person as well.

Gabriel's eyes lit up with the small fact, though, completely ignoring the threat. He wouldn't push harder (yet, when they got home, that was a different story). "No need to look so afraid, Cassie! C'mon, chin up! You've got a soul mate, and I bet he's awesome. And I also happen to know that you have a class at this moment and if you don't get in there, those kids are going to turn your preciously organized classroom into a mad house. C'mon, you never leave your classes alone! What's gotten into you, bro? It's a soul mate – that should be giving you the opposite reaction. Unless he's like… an ass. Or really ugly. Well, I guess ugly doesn't matter too much as long as he's not an ass."

"Gabriel, shut up." Maybe Cas just wouldn't go back to class. Because, maybe, Gabriel was going to keep him right here and just about _talk_ him to death. "He's not ugly. But I don't think he's my type." Gabriel couldn't help to intervene to cough something that sounded suspiciously like 'You don't have a type.' before letting Castiel continue. "And I can't be an accurate judge of his personality yet because I barely know him. Now, enough." Cas stood up, albeit shakily, but it was better than nothing, and looked to his brother. "You're right. My class is probably going crazy. I need to return to them."

Gabriel recognized the monotone covering the fear in his brother's voice immediately and grabbed onto Castiel's arms, narrowing his eyes at the younger of the two. "Cas, you know that you can tell me if there's a problem here, right?"

"Gabriel, it's just different. I would tell you if he was a serial killer or something. That is, if I knew. Now, go on. You probably have class too." Castiel forced a smile (but after talking to his brother, it was a little more real than it might have been before) before exiting the room, leaving Gabriel (who, in fact, did not have a class!) to contemplate.

Gabriel knew Castiel. Knew him better than Cas himself seemed to sometimes. But this had him baffled. He'd known that Castiel was nervous about having a soul mate – the younger Novak brother took more opening up to before he really got along with people, and he could never be social in the way that Gabriel was, but it hadn't been like this before. It hadn't been to the point that Castiel would have to leave his class in a panic, and not want to go back. Where he'd force a smile, and not want to talk about it.

Cas talked to him (most of the times) when he had problems (except when the problems were Gabriel, in which case he'd generally turn to a cousin, or Balthazar, a close friend). He told him what was going on. Sure, he didn't always want to, nor did he really like Gabriel worrying about him (he wanted to be independent), but he still told him! This was annoying Gabriel for that very reason.

Castiel wasn't telling him something, and it was important. Probably one of the most important things that would end up happening to his brother. So now?

Gabriel wanted answers.


	4. Chapter 4

_Once more, thank you so much for your varied forms of interest/following of the story~! I'm so glad you're enjoying it. I still don't own Supernatural or any of that jazz, and I am the one who edited my own work. This section, again, little Cas-Dean interaction. A little bit of Jess, a little of Sam, a tiny bit of Benny. Cas-Dean next time. I promise. Thanks again for the continued support and hope you stick around!_

The week went by slowly, Castiel and Dean refusing to make eye contact with each other, and, thus, causing tension between the whole class. A few of them were making bets on what had happened ("I bet Winchester said something stupid"/"Did you hear the rumor about Mr. Novak?"), but there was no guess of what had actually happened.

Sam Winchester, however, little brother, and always ready to get in his brother's business when he knew that Dean needed it, was not about to let this go on unaddressed. He knew the tension was there just as much as anyone else, but he also knew Dean to be someone who would dwell on his problems to the point that he basically self-destructed, and, believe it or not, Sam was not the kid that Dean was convinced he had to defend from all of the bullies at school, and he just wanted to make sure that Dean was careful with whatever mess he had gotten himself into this time.

On the way home from school on Friday, Jess came back to their house with them, Sam and Jess in the backseat, excitedly babbling between each other about their week's adventure, and Dean just ignored them, sleeve pulled up over his wrist. Jess had not been told about the soul mate issue (and Dean had to remind himself that he owed his little brother who would usually blab about just about anything something big for keeping his mouth shut this time), but Sam? Sam was curious.

Every night, the younger of the two begged for information from Dean, even went so far as to point it out to Bobby, a close family friend and basically second father, that Dean's clock had run out. Dean had sent his brother a glare to rival any face that Sam had ever tried against him, but it was no use. They were both curious now, and even if Jess didn't know, Bobby knowing meant that anyone else who was important knew.

To be perfectly honest, Dean was pretty sure that Jess knew too. Sam may have been trying to keep his curiosity and excitement under a wrap, but he knew his little brother. When something worked him up to this sort of a point, it was no surprise that he was going to end up getting too excited and letting it slip, even if he wasn't meant to say it. Either way, Dean had never actually told Sam that he wasn't allowed to tell anyone.

It shouldn't be something that was going to be a secret forever! Goddammit, this was a moment in which Dean Winchester was supposed to be happier than he had ever been before, but instead he was terrified and upset, because of the fact that he was never going to really be able to know his soul mate. Out of all of the people who could have possibly ended up as Dean's soul mate, it was his new English teacher.

His new English teacher who had fled from class the day after the clock stopped, presumably because of the fact that Dean Winchester was his soul mate. A student who didn't try, and didn't care. A student who he'd had to save on his very first day of work! Someone who was obviously way out of the league of a man who could deal with giggling teenage girls and classical literature at the same time. Dean Winchester. He wasn't right for anyone, not really. But he had someone, and he couldn't do anything about that.

Castiel (Mr. Novak? What was Dean even supposed to call his _soul mate_, considering he was also his English teacher?) had fled from class that day. He hadn't given an explanation to the students, but the eye contact had been enough for Dean to know. He had realized what had happened, and he was not going to deal with it. He was running, like Dean wanted to. But Dean couldn't. Unluckily for Mr. Novak, he was stuck in the class.

Dean hadn't realized Sam's worried look or the fact that they got home until he felt himself pulling the key from the car in such a routine motion that he couldn't have possibly messed it up. Sam, who had his whole life together now and never had to worry about his soul mate not working out (well, as far as they knew at that point, there was so much to come in the life of the young Winchester), waved Jessica into the house before turning to Dean with a worried frown.

"Dean, do you want to talk about it?" He inclined his head toward his brother's wrist, and Dean just narrowed his eyes, standing up and pulling his sleeve down, as if the numbers weren't hidden already.

"Sam, I'm fine. I didn't meet my soul mate. Whatever. If we're really meant for each other, or whatever the hell it's supposed to mean, we'll run into each other again. It's not the end of the world that the time that we met for the first time I didn't actually meet him. Or her. Or whatever. They probably were busy too," He shrugged, grabbing his backpack, but his arm was grabbed by Sam.

"Stop it."

"Stop what, Sam? Just telling me to stop can have all sorts of implications. Stop doing my homework, stop driving you home, stop doing the things that I do when I know that you're li-"

"Dean, don't you dare go on with that sentence," Sam's look turned scandalized, and Dean laughed at his brother, ruffling his hair and (mostly) pulling himself out of his funk.

"Sammy, if I needed your help, I'd ask for it. If I needed advice for it, I know you're right there to go to. But I'm not worried about it. It'll work out how it's supposed to work out. Maybe my soul mate's an ass anyway. You know, there was that new girl in class," Dean turned on his brother with a smirk as he started into the room, "Damn, if you didn't have Jess, you would've been staring too."

"Dean!" Sam's voice was a whine, shoving his older brother, and Dean laughed to him, opening up the door, knowing that Jess had been listening the whole time, soft footsteps disappearing into the house, to Sam's room, where they'd 'work on homework' (except who was Dean kidding: Sam and Jess were probably actually working on homework. No insinuation necessary). The older walked into the house and kicked the door closed behind his brother.

"You know it's true!" Dean winked, shoving past, rubbing at one of his arms that had a bruise left on it from the day that Mr. Novak had… No. he didn't want to think about that. That was the past, and he was no longer going to think about Mr. Novak ever ever. Ever. Mr. Novak was his English teacher.

The day went on how every day did, Dean sitting on the couch, his notebook in his lap, but it was Friday, so why would he really do his homework? He laughed at the thought of it, watching TV until he heard his phone ring, groping over to grab it and then glancing down at the ID. Benny.

He groaned and rolled over so that he could mute the TV to actually be able to hear what his friend was saying and put the phone to his ear.

"Yeah?"

"You doing anything tonight," Right to the point, of course. Dean didn't expect anything else from his friend. Not that he minded all that much. He loved Charlie and Jo, but sometimes Jo would go on and on about her day (mostly just because she knew it annoyed him), and Charlie was prone to go on rants about whatever 'fandom news' she had ("Did you hear about the new episode of…?!"). They both knew that it annoyed Dean, and found it hilarious to hear him try to get them to stop with their babbling. Though, Charlie was just as passionate about her shows as she spoke to Dean, but she still followed the same patterns that Jo did with her talking on the phone. Benny, on the other hand, was not a babbler. Thank god. Dean didn't know how many more girlfriends he could handle.

But that was okay – he didn't have many friends in general. Other than the ones that he shared with his little brother, and Benny, Charlie, and Jo, most of the people in the school pretty much avoided Dean. He didn't care, except for about the bullies. The bullies were assholes and Dean knew that he couldn't stop them if he tried, and he didn't really want to. Let them have their fun. They'd be stupid if they wanted to be stupid – it wasn't going to affect Dean other than the physical.

Or so he told himself. He caught the pitying looks, the worried stares. He didn't care.

"Of course not, Benny. What would I even be doing that you didn't know about?" He rolled his eyes, sitting up and grabbing his shoes almost immediately. That meant that Benny had plans. Thank god for plans. That was some of the best news Dean had heard all day. As long as they avoided the whole 'soul mate' issue.

"Then come by my place. I know Sam's got Jess over, and I won't fuss you about your soul mate if you don't talk about it, because I know you've been freaked all week. C'mon. It's not too bad!"

Dean made a face, looking up toward the ceiling before he nodded his head, glancing back toward the wall. "What are we doing?"

"Just hangin' out! Do we need to have a purpose?"

Dean sighed, knowing it wasn't worth the fighting, so he went to Benny's.

True to his word, the soul mate was not brought up, and Dean was immensely relieved about that.

But it was only a matter of time until someone got curious, until someone realized that his clock was at zero and that he hadn't mentioned a thing about his soul mate, barely even given Sam any information when usually he'd tell his brother everything. He was avoiding it, and it was working out pretty well.

So, if they could make it through the year without having to address the whole 'soul mate' thing, Dean would be all the more pleased.

Too bad that Dean knew he had Castiel's (Mr. Novak's? What do you even do there?) class every day next week.

Too bad Dean knew that it never worked well for him when he wanted it to.


End file.
